Almost a quarter of Europeans will purchase online content and services by 2007, spending a total of around â‚Ź3.2 billion, according to forecasts from Jupiter Research.
The research shows that the sector is still fairly nascent, with only 9% of European consumers buying these services via the web in 2003 and generating revenues of â‚Ź693 million. About 21% of people are buying services like premium email, e-cards and SMS composers, although the majority of spend (43%) is still on adult content.
By 2007, when the average annual spend online will be â‚Ź70 per person, a shift toward multimedia content is expected to have occurred. Jupiter says that broadband will drive interest in purchasing multimedia content, pushing the category ahead of the adult sector for the first time.
It forecasts that multimedia content will represent 50% of total paid online content and services spending, ahead of paid text and picture-based services, which will count for just 25% of consumer spending. Adult-related spend will drop back to around 25% of revenues, it forecasts.
